When creating the antagonists of the Naruto series, creator Masashi Kishimoto's primary goal was to create villains that were directly opposed to the lead characters' moral values. He stated that this focus on illustrating the difference in values is central to his creation of villains to the point that, "I don't really think about them in combat". The villains' physical appearances were embellished in order to differentiate them from other characters. Kishimoto commented that "the difference between the heroes and the villains must be obvious" and that the different appearances should make it easier for a reader to follow the story and "recognize that 'this character is a bad guy'", even in heated battle scenes. In some cases, Kishimoto creates antagonists to fight specific characters, and ensures that the antagonists' unique attributes "make the battles interesting". Kishimoto also noted that making the villains "flamboyant" with a "showy costume" is part of his "guiding principles" in ensuring the villains were clearly visible from the other characters in the story, as well as making them "more memorable".

is a village founded by Orochimaru for the purpose of collecting ninja for his experiments to learn all the jutsu in the world. The village is not contiguous, consisting of multiple assorted lairs located within the Land of Sound and outside it.

is one of the primary antagonists of the Naruto series. To emphasize his role as a villain, Kishimoto worked towards making him appear "pasty and sickly" as part of his theme of distinguishing villains from the protagonists. His desire to obtain immortality led him to conduct experiments on other Konohagakure ninja, and he eventually fled the village and joined the criminal organization . After a failed attempt to take over Itachi Uchiha's body, he left the Akatsuki and established his own ninja village, Otogakure, in the hopes of destroying his former home. His immortality technique involves transferring his soul between different host bodies, and his desire for a new host, particularly Sasuke Uchiha, is one of his driving motivations throughout the series. Because of his different host bodies and the disguises he assumes, a panoply of voice actors are utilized for Orochimaru; his most common seiyū in the Japanese anime is Kujira, and the corresponding English voice actor is Steven Blum.